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CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Hungry for heroin, Cash Yoakem leafed through the phone book to find the
addresses of Ross County churches he thought would make easy marks.

He kicked in the doors and broke windows, stole the petty cash and snatched anything he thought
he could pawn or sell. From October until his arrest in January, he hit 29 churches — many of them
more than once — and stole from the money machines at two car washes.

He eventually pleaded guilty to 44 counts of breaking and entering, all fifth-degree felonies.
And yesterday, Ross County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott W. Nusbaum sentenced him to four years in
prison.

“Your conduct was reprehensible, heinous,” Nusbaum told Yoakem, of Chillicothe. “You destroyed
the sanctity of these places of worship, and you sent a shock wave through this community that won’t
end for some time.”

But before he could sentence Yoakem, Nusbaum dealt with another issue: He struck down a section
of Ohio’s revamped sentencing laws — a section that was intended to keep judges from sending most
non-violent, first-time felony offenders to prison — as unconstitutional.

This case, all sides have agreed, could prove to be the first real test of the revamped
sentencing laws that many judges and prosecutors have complained about since they were introduced
in late 2011 and 2012.

Nusbaum’s ruling of unconstitutionality applies only in Ross County, meaning he and the other
Common Pleas judge once again have the ability to decide, unhampered by the guidelines in the
current law, who goes to prison and who doesn’t. But it would take an appellate decision to have
any effect statewide, County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt said. Yoakem’s defense attorney, James
Szorady, said Yoakem has indicated he does want to appeal.

Under the state guidelines, Yoakem should have been sentenced only to probation or a
community-based justice program. A provision of the sentencing laws, however, allowed the judge to
ask the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction for a recommendation on what to do with
Yoakem. The department made no recommendation for a suitable probation program so, under the law,
that cleared the way for a prison sentence.

Szorady, of the state public defender’s office, argued that the provision that says the court
must seek guidance from the prisons department is unconstitutional because it’s a violation of the
separation of powers of the branches of government.

Nusbaum agreed, but rather than just strike down that particular provision, he ruled that the
entire section that removes a judge’s ability to send those offenders to prison is wrong.

And while his attorney argued constitutional law, Yoakem, 26, just tried to keep himself out of
prison.

“I am not this monstrous criminal,” he said. “I did have a serious drug addiction that led me to
do those things.” He said he has written letters of apology to each church.

Schmidt said that several of the churches asked for no restitution, and that the pastors said
they hoped only that, after his sentence, Yoakem would make a better life for himself.

Schmidt said he hopes so, too, but that didn’t mean the man shouldn’t spend time in prison.